The girls are still doing swim lessons every Saturday morning. Rose graduated from the “baby” lessons last Fall and now she and Lulu are in the same class at the same time. When she first moved up, Lu was a little protective of her, always making sure she was close by. They gave each other lots of proud hugs. It was really cute. The older kids were there to mentor the younger ones.

But now in this session, their class is so large that there are two groups within the class. Lulu is with the older, more advanced kids and Rose with the younger side of the group. She’s the only girl currently in her “group” and she definitely does things at her own pace and on her own terms. She may not be the fastest swimmer in her group, but she’s focused on technique. The past few weeks she’s really been working on putting her face in the water while she swims. This week she added opening her eyes in the water, too. And I just love how her little arms and legs spaz out when she puts her face in!

Lulu has made amazing strides since last Fall. She has a bit of a leg up because she has an additional swim lesson during the week at school. Recently she’s ditched wearing a bubble during class and is doing really well with out it. Love the look of triumph when she gets out of the pool.

Today she almost swam the entire length of the pool without her bubble. It was a huge feat considering she did it at the end of the class when she was tired.

We went to an art show last week at the girls’ school. It was a fundraiser for the YMCA and you could “buy” your child’s art work for a small donation. Each class did some individual art work, decided on by the teachers). Rose’s class made stamps out of sea shells and Lulu’s class did pendulum painting. There was a reception with snacks and music provided by two Berkley students.

While it was a little crazy and super crowded, the girls really liked that they had their own art up on the walls!

Like every year, I waited to do the birthday post until after they’ve had their annual check-up (which I think I didn’t do last year…).

height: 42.25″weight: 38 lbs.

She grew 3 1/4″ since last year and gained 2lbs! That’s the good news. The bad (-ish) news is that she failed her eye exam. We (her father) noticed that she hasn’t been able to see certain things, like the numbers on the cable box clock. Sure enough, she had a hard time with the exam at the Dr.’s office. I made an appointment with a pediatric eye doctor for next month and most likely she will be getting glasses.

Other than that, she was a trooper all the way through her appointment, and especially when the two nurses came in and administered FOUR vaccinations. Poor kid.

We celebrated Lulu’s birthday a few weeks ago. We had another nice party for her at Grammy K’s house (I haven’t downloaded photos off of the card yet because our card reader died.) She was very excited for her birthday this year and couldn’t wait to have cake and open presents. I wanted to make a big deal out of it since she “got it” this year.

We got her a big girl bike.

This bike

The only problem is that neither of us has the patience to teach her how to ride it. We will, it’s just hard because she doesn’t seem to understand how to pedal. Or, part of the problem is that she just can’t see.

Over the past year she has learned and grown so much. I guess I will probably say this as every year goes by, but it is astonishing to watch it happen. Her first year of preschool was a huge success. She really came out of her shell, made friends, learned some gymnastics and really just became very social and outgoing. She has no issue going up to another kid she doesn’t know and saying “Hi, I’m Lulu. What’s your name?”

First day of school

Last day of school

Her teachers really loved her. They thought she was adorable, has a really funny sense of humor with things that she’d say and they always told me how amazed they were at how smart she is.

The end of the school year caught up to us really fast and I was a little sad for her because I knew that she would be missing it.

Lu in class before her first field trip to the Children’s Museum

In school, drawing a picture

It was kind of funny because the road leading up to the school is being developed with houses. Every week we watched the progress of one house, which was only a foundation when the school year started, and by the end of the year it was fully built and landscaped. I couldn’t help myself not to be sappy about it and compare to her during the course of the school year.

Swimming is still a Saturday morning activity. Her teacher is really great at pushing her to excel. She actually put Lulu up a level so that she could still keep teaching her because she thought she’d be held back in the lower level with a different instructor. She is learning how to swim without the comfort of the bubble. She still uses a noodle but she has swam the short width of the pool without anything, which is amazing.

She’s also learning to put her face fully in the water. She’s still working on it.

Some of her typical favorite activities are: playing with Play Doh, drawing pictures and doing puzzles (she must get that last part from Grammy Frazier. She’s a WHIZ and putting puzzles together!) She is into Curious George books and the tv show. Her favorite stuffed animal is Spike the hedgehog and she sleeps with him every night.

A portrait of Spike

Spike

She sometimes sneaks my iPhone away from me to play around with it. When I get it back I find a million pics that she has taken of herself. While a lot of them are sometimes just the top of her head, some of them crack me up and end up being keepers. (You can click on each strip to see it larger)

I could go on and on pointing out every little nuance, but I won’t. I will say that she has an adventurous spirit and a quirky sense of humor. She’s a generous and sweet kid and I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for her.

The nice weather this week gave us the opportunity to get outside. I love when I see noticeable changes in the girls. I realize that they’re getting older and things will change, but I love when it’s obvious.

Last summer we played a lot in the grassy area next to the PEM. It’s smaller than the Salem Common (and I don’t have to chase them to the playground), it’s closer to our house (key while Lulu was beginning to potty train) and its quieter (less dogs/Tweens).

Anyway, while out the other day I was struck with the realization that the girls were playing *with* each other, not just in the same space. They were chasing each other, showing each other leaves they found and playing peekaboo around a tree.

It was awesome.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all warm & fuzzy all of the time. They’re siblings, they fight. Rose is an instigator. Lulu will be playing quietly, minding her own business, when Rose will sneak up on her and snatch whatever she’s playing with just so she can run away.

Or Lulu will use her size to her advantage and muscle something out of Rose’s grip. They each want whatever toy the other one is currently playing with, only to drop it in boredom not even 2 minutes later.

But they typically are very sweet and polite to each other. Rosie always wants to hug Lu. Lulu is always very generous to her little sister, offering her one of something if she has two. Hearing that exchange always cracks up up:

A day I was both looking forward to AND dreading has finally come: Rose has given up her nap.

the good old days...

I know they don’t last forever and I should consider myself lucky that they lasted this long (since her sister ditched her nap the day she turned two). But the long nap in the middle of the day sort of restricted us from doing certain activities, which made me look forward to not being a slave to them.

That being said, Lulu will likely miss her alone time with me. And I will miss the short break in the middle of the day having to juggle both girls.

Swim lessons in the morning. The girls got their “report cards.” Rosie gets to advance a level finally, which means she swims in the pool without a parent.

Lulu is doing well in her class, considering she’s actually in a more advanced class with older kids. Her instructor thinks she can stay in that level because she’s keeping up and doing well. She needs to listen better and work on a few more skills.